Heavy rains have triggered a deadly spate of landslides in Bangladesh

Heavy rains have triggered a deadly spate of landslides in south eastern Bangladesh. The landslides and intense flooding have claimed the lives of at least 140 people in the region, according to local authorities — and they caution that with many people still missing, the death toll could climb even higher.

It’s already one of Bangladesh’s deadliest natural disasters in the past decade — worse even than a 2007 landslide that killed about 130 people in the port city of Chittagong.

Hardest hit in the region is the hilly district of Rangamati, where The Associated Press reports at least 103 people were killed and at least 5,000 homes were destroyed or badly damaged.

Bangladesh, which is now in its monsoon season and was hit just two weeks ago by deadly Cyclone Mora, found itself lashed by rains from a severe depression over the Bay of Bengal early Monday. But Al Jazeera reported from Chittagong that it isn’t just these rainy conditions that are to blame for the disaster:

“These areas are prone to mud slides, but deforestation, mismanagement and land grabs have intensified this problem. The government needs to do much more in evacuation, stopping land grabs and hill cutting as well as deforestation.”

And while Rangamati received the worst of it, Bandarban district and Chittagong, Bangladesh’s second-largest city, also saw dozens of deaths and still more destroyed homes.